In the field of industrial cooking requiring the rapid cooking and throughput of large quantities of food it has been customary to pass the food through a cooker on a conveyor belt. Typical examples of such prior art are as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,481--E. T. Console et al. This shows a chamber through which a conveyor belt passes to carry produce for blanching in a steam spray.
Certified Manufacturing, Inc., Lynwood, Calif. 90262 has marketed gas fired broilers with a conveyor belt transport therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,491,958--J. F. Logan et al., uses a spiral conveyor to transport food in cans through a dry heat chamber.
However, in this type of prior art there are many unsolved problems relating to the cooking, the efficiency and the sanitation of conveyor type cooking systems.
Thus, particularly with rapid cooking techniques, the juices, essences and moisture is withdrawn from food products changing the appearance, flavor and texture thereof.
Also the cooking may not be uniform to the center of such products as meat which needs be cooked at the inner bone structure.
In general the food products present an interface to the heating medium that does not efficiently transfer heat, such as the fat skin layer of a piece of fowl. Also, such residue as fat drippings can significantly decrease heating efficiency.
Whenever a continuously running conveyor is used it tends to carry heat out of the cooker and cool air into it. This wastes energy and establishes an uncomfortable working environment for loading the conveyor.
Also the amount of energy carried out of a hood or exhaust system is significant, and in the case of steam heat for example, there can be significant heat loss by condensation of the steam into droplets.
The conveyor belts are difficult to sanitize, particularly in those systems that pass the belt back through the cooker to bake on residue. Other movable and irregularly shaped parts in or near cookers are apt to accumulate contaminating residue and breed bacteria. Also accessibility of the systems is in many cases difficult for takedown and entry into interior compartments for cleaning and sanitation.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved, efficient, sanitary conveyor type cooker for food products that resolves the foregoing problems, and provides other features and advantages which will be found throughout the following text.